Stake
by Chloe Silvers
Summary: Written for Day 2 of 30 days of Sterek. Prompt: Every muscle and joint ached, every breath was a struggle.


On normal days, werewolves and hunters were just people like everyone else. Stiles liked to think that causing havoc was tiring for both parties, and that weekends were a nice day off. That they could one day, accept differences, stop acting like children, and stop this ridiculous Shakespearean play. He hoped that one day, they could all see each other walking around, give each other a nod of acknowledgement, and just move on with the day.

Today wasn't normal.

It started with writing an English assignment and ended with running away from blood sucking vampires. The wooden stake didn't work, and neither did the garlic necklace that Stiles decided to wear for good measure, regardless of people rolling their eyes at him.

Derek and the rest of the pack were trying to fight off the Queen when Stiles' priorities shifted from waiting in the car to driving away from a swarm of bats who could smell his human blood.

It was hard enough to drive home in the middle of the night being exhausted from little adventures like these, trying to make sure that he didn't make much noise as he snuck back into the house. It was near impossible to keep an eye on where he was going with a swarm of bats following his Jeep and being able to hear them trying to get inside.

To drive away from the scene to save his own life and not think of the fact that he was abandoning his friends and letting them fend for themselves against the Queen.

He didn't know how to stop the vampires from coming after him. Stiles found a church and drove in, blasting through the front door.

It must have worked, because when he opened his eyes again, he was in a hospital room. He could hear the heart monitor beeping, and when he saw the needle in his skin, he wondered if he should tell someone that whatever pain-killer he was on wasn't working. Every muscle and joint ached, every breath was a struggle.

He needed to call his Dad. He needed to know about this. It was going to be hard to explain, especially since the getting here part was blurry, but Dad needed to know.

He tried to get up and look for his phone, but there was too much pain. He felt his body rebelling against the action, rendering him useless.

"Don't get up. What do you need?"

He followed the voice and saw Derek. "I need to call my Dad."

"He's already here. He's upstairs with Scott getting food."

Stiles nodded. Scott probably sent Derek over here to keep an eye on him and kicked Dad out of the room to get his mind off of things. "Can you hand me my phone?"

"I'm sorry", Derek said quickly. "You didn't have to be involved in all of this. I threatened your life to get you to help me."

"Yeah, well, why break tradition?" Stiles asked "I would have helped you anyway."

"I lured the Queen out with your scent and the entire pack went after you. You shouldn't have been alone."

They could have this discussion for hours, going back and forth with who was to blame, and it still wouldn't be enough. The only problem was that Dad would be back and the first question would be to ask what happened. He needed something to explain whatever injuries he had.

"It's okay", he cut Derek off. "What's the cover story? Dad should be here any second."

"You thought you saw a dog on the road, you swerved and hit the church door."

"Thank you for keeping an eye on me. You didn't have to do that. Scott probably shouldn't have sent you in- Dad's suspicious enough with linking the three of us to his unsolved cases. Is everyone else okay? Jackson and Isaac?"

"They're fine", Derek said. "Listen, I"

"-Hospital food", Scott announced, opening the door and stepping through. "It's horrible, but it'll make you feel better. Man, you have no idea how glad I am that you're okay."

Stiles looked at Scott and then at Derek. The next thing Stiles saw was his father dropping everything on a table and then engulfing him in a warm hug. When the hug ended, he saw Derek stand up.

"I should get going. Scott. Sheriff." He acknowledged the two men in front of him before leaving.

"I got you extra pudding cups", Scott continued. "And some jello", he set the cups on the food tray in front of Stiles.

"Figure it's probably the best time to load up on the sugar and ignore the nutritional aspect of it all." The Sheriff added.

Stiles gave his Dad a wide smile. Being here in a hospital, especially after everything that their family had been through when his mom died- it couldn't have been easy to wait for him to wake up. "Dad. I'm okay. I promise. They've got me tied up to all of these machines to keep me hostage, that's all. How's my Jeep?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed."

"How's the dog?" Stiles asked, remembering the cover story

"No one's seen it", Scott said, playing along. "But I'm sure it's fine."

"Hey Dad?" He got the man's attention. "I forgot to tell a nurse or a doctor that I'm up. Do you mind?"

"Sure, no problem." The Sheriff left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Dude, what happened out there?" He asked Scott. "Did you guys get the vamp queen? Who found me?"

"We got her. And turns out that once there's no queen, there are no more followers. That's when we found you."

"Thanks for that, by the way. And for calling my Dad. I know it probably wasn't easy to come up with an explanation, but it was the right call." Stiles fought through the pain and pulled open a chocolate pudding cup. He looked for a spoon in the paper bag that Scott brought back with him.

"It wasn't me", Scott told him.

Stiles stopped fidgeting around the bag. "Of course it was you. Who else would it be?"

"Derek found you. Panicked, you know? Because he can't just break one of your bones to jumpstart the healing process. He called 911 and then he called your dad. Said that the two of us were out running and saw the Jeep crash."

"And he bought it? With the battle wounds and all?"

"The windshield shattered when you made contact with the church. There was glass everywhere. Punctured your skin. I panicked. Didn't know what to do. Derek got you out of the car, pulled it all out of you, and tried to use as much of his shirt as he could to bandage the wounds. Sent everyone else home to protect them. Nobody asked too many questions when the ambulance came. He held your hand the entire ride over here to take on your pain. I'm pretty sure he tried when your dad wasn't looking too."

Stiles looked out the window of the door and saw Derek standing there from the corner. He looked back at Scott and then over to the window again. Derek was gone.

Stiles nodded his head and ate his pudding in silence. Derek Hale cared about him.

Imagine that.


End file.
